Musings about Tradition in the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and an attempt to collect essays and articles which would appear in a Catholic press which exercised critical solidarity with the Hierarchy.

15 February 2008

1 + 1 + 1 = 3

.First, the Pope changed the Good Friday Extraordinary Form of the Prayer for the Jews. (This shows that the Mass in its Extraordinary is as subject to organic development as it ever has been.)

Then we saw Alcuin Reid's thoughts about Archbishop Lefebvre. (He concludes that perhaps the Archbishop kept something alive which might have perished without him.)

Then we saw the 2003 letter from Cardinal Ratzinger which gave an idea of what a non-Bugninite student of liturgical reform might have thought the Vatican Council had been thinking of.

As though a strobe light has flashed across a dark world, a proto-plan for Benedictine reform, a necessary demand for loyalty, and a bridge to those who, like the IBP did, positively want union and not separation, have all flashed before us.

This is an activist Pope: his enemies are grouping around Cardinal Marini's book. They haven't a chance!

Why do people assume that the Pope is an innocent when everything we know about him suggests that he is a masterful tactician, who knows exactly what he wants to do?

1 comment:

I attended Mass at my local SSPX chapel during the Christmas period. Bishop Fellay was here and I wanted to hear him speak. Well, he went on for just over two hours! The seat was uncomfortable but I found much of what he said to be very interesting.One of his topics was Pope Benedict.He said that Benedict is having a bit of a hard time regarding his authority. There are many bishops around the world who are trying to strip Benedict of his authority. In particular Bishop Fellay charged the German, French and American bishops of being in the van of this drive. Their reactions to the Motu Proprio being a good example of their disaffection and avowed intention of totally ignoring what the Pope is trying to do. Another example is to be found in the words of Consecration. The Pope asked all the bishops around the world regarding the use of the words "for all" instead of the (faithful to Scripture) use of the words "pro multis" 'for many' when consecrating the Chalice. Over 90% wanted to keep using "for all". However, the Pope is insisting on "for many" in the face what those bishops want. The result has been that everyone is still using "for all" and some bishops have even petitioned for an indult to keep using these words instead of changing to "for many", as the Pope is insisting. One of the, perhaps unspoken,fruits of Vat II is in regarding the Pope as one amongst equals instead of primus inter pares. Bishop Fellay called on us all to pray especially for the Pope that his authority be not subverted but accepted. This must entail these disaffected bishops actually accepting and implementing the reforms which Benedict is insisting on.